Hi all,

I have a perennial problem with rebuilding all configurations in a part. I don't understand why it seems like I am the only person suffering this problem, otherwise there would be a command in SW to do this. Let me explain:

Each year SW releases a new version. Each year I try to convert my existing files to the new file format. I have many part files each containing many configurations, and I like to have each configuration built so that the file is not modified when I move between configurations or when I reference a configuration in an assembly. Unfortunately there is no easy way to do this. Let's go through each possibility:

1) Use the "Convert Files" task in the SW Task Sceduler. - This does not work becuase is simply opens each file and then saves it. It does not rebuild any configuration.

2) Use the "Update Files" task in the SW Task Scheduler. - This does not work because it only rebuilds the active configuration.

3) Manually open each part file and issue the "Rebuild all configurations" command hidden in the "Modify Configurations" dialog launched when you right-click a feature and select "Configure Feature". Asside from being highly impractical because of the number of part files involved, this does not work because it does not actually rebuild each configuration! This requires further explanation: Did you know that rebuilding a configuration is only a subset of activating a configuration? No, neither did I until recently. Here's an explanation from my VAR:

"When a part is opened in a new version of SolidWorks, all the parasolid data is marked as dirty for each configuration. The configuration itself has not changed, so the file is not marked as dirty, but when you activate a configuration for the first time, it will rebuild the parasolid information."

4) Use a macro to rebuild each configuration using the ForceRebuild3 command. This sounds promissing, however for a significant number (possibly arround half) of part files the ForceRebuild3 throws an exception.

5) The last method availbale to me is the one I have been using for years and it's insane: I manually open each part file and manually activate each configuration! As you can imagine this takes days.

So, my questions are these:

How do other SW users maintain built configurations in their part files, particularly when upgrading to the next version of SW?

Why is there no "Rebuild (or Activate) all configurations" command in SW that is the equivalent of activating each configuration?

Thanks in advance... now back to activating all my configurations. See you in a couple of days...